This study introduces a novel quantitative method to assess the willingness to pay for emerging technologies, such as hydrogen, as substitutes for fossil fuels in industrial production. A three-step framework is developed to derive the willingness-to-pay function based on industrial competition...

Although the climate impact of carbon abatement is geographically invariant, this paper documents limited geographic fungibility in voluntary carbon markets. Firms disproportionately retire offsets in countries where they operate. The paper contrasts an Information Channel, whereby local...

Socioemotional skills programs are widely used to promote economic empowerment, yet their returns may vary by skill-type and gender. This paper evaluates a socioemotional skills intervention for 4,500 agribusiness owners in a large-scale government program in Nigeria. Using a randomized...

Technological change has historically widened or preserved gender gaps in labor market outcomes in favor of men. The World Bank’s Digital Transformation and Its Role in Expanding Women’s Economic Opportunities in Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon provided a comprehensive diagnostic of the digital...

Business upgrading programs in developing economies often generate substantial gains for male entrepreneurs but limited average impacts for women, raising concerns about both efficiency and equity. This study develops a Program Readiness Scorecard (PRS)—a transparent, scalable tool based on 10...

Can college-educated women in rapidly developing economies balance career and family, or does compressed economic growth polarize their choices? This paper investigates how Indonesian women navigate these dual objectives across birth cohorts from the 1950s to the 1990s. It utilizes 38 years of...

This paper empirically assesses Saudi Arabia’s industrial policy using data on policy announcements matched to industry-level exports and firm-level outcomes. It first provides a comprehensive overview of the country’s industrial policy landscape, documenting the scale, timing, sectoral...

Is place-based green industrial policy effective? This paper examines the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Community provisions, which provide spatially targeted incentives for renewable energy investment. Using a difference-in-differences design with investment and job vacancy data, it shows...

Disasters due to natural hazards pose a significant threat to people’s well-being and increase the risk of poverty, particularly in vulnerable populations. This paper provides a novel global estimate of poverty due to disasters, showing that 25.6 million people are at risk of poverty due to...

This paper studies job preferences among women in rural and peri-urban areas in El Salvador using a discrete choice experiment. Drawing on focus group insights, the analysis varies wages and five non‑wage job attributes—contract status, experience requirements, commute safety, residential...